Aahh, the power of money. After Sydney turned four, we decided that we'd start paying her an allowance. She has to keep her room relatively neat and tidy, make her bed, replace the small trash bag liners around the house, and clear her dishes. For these tasks, we give her one dollar a week. She does a great job with the trash bags (she'd been doing it for about a year now, for free!). She hasn't slept under her covers since mid-February, to keep her bed made. She hasn't broken any dishes yet. Her room is, well, always a challenge.
Anyway, she keeps her money in her small, purple, velour "Princess & the Frog" purse. I was hoping she would start understanding that it is actual, real money that you can buy things with (or save up to finance her college education). She tends to take out the coins and bills, play with it and leave it around the house. Today I decided to take her to our favorite store, Target, to see if there was something she wanted to buy with her own money. I tried to explain that she didn't HAVE to buy anything; that if she found something but didn't have enough she could start saving for that specific thing; if she wanted something that cost what she had in her purse she'd use it all up; or if she found something that didn't cost much, she would have money left after buying it.
She found something right away in the dollar section of the store. And we perused the toy section and the DVDs and books. When it was time to go, she kept saying she wanted to buy something else but she didn't know what. Again I explained that she didn't HAVE to buy something just because she had money. But she insisted on this:
A butterfly net!
On the way home, she asked me to open the window. She held on tight to the handle and let the wind blow through the net, squealing with utter delight. I guess some things you just HAVE to have.
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